Econet Data Recharge Service Down for Over 24 Hours

Econet Wireless customers across Zimbabwe have been left without a way to purchase mobile data bundles since early yesterday due to a major outage of the telecom's USSD recharge platform.

The *143# USSD code used by Econet subscribers to buy data recharge bundles has been inaccessible for more than 24 hours. Econet issued a notice acknowledging they are "working on" resolving the problem, but have not provided any specifics on the cause or timeline for a fix.

This extended downtime is highly inconvenient for Econet's millions of customers when they run out of data or have an expired bundle and are unable to top up from their mobile phone. It forces them to find alternative options for accessing the internet until the recharge service is restored.

The outage appears to extend beyond just the data USSD code, impacting other USSD services as well. The USSD codes for Innbucks mobile money transfers (*569#) and other bank services are also currently unavailable on the Econet network, according to reports.

Surprisingly, the EcoCash USSD platform for mobile money transfers remains operational during this incident. Testing also shows that USSD services are functioning normally on the competing NetOne mobile network, suggesting the problem is isolated to Econet's infrastructure.

While USSD downtimes are reasonably common for a few hours at a time due to technical glitches, an outage lasting over 24 hours is quite rare and points to a potentially major system issue for Zimbabwe's largest telecom operator.

Customers and industry watchers alike will be keen to see how long it takes for Econet to resolve this impactful data recharge outage that has left many without mobile internet access for over a day so far. The extended service disruption raises questions about redundancies and failover capabilities in Econet's USSD platform infrastructure.